Page 17 of Burning Justice

Raine scrunched up her nose. “JoJo told me to pray about it. Give my fears and my dreams to God. I don’t know if it did anything.”

“It’s been fifteen years since I saw my father. Maybe I’m kidding myself that he hasn’t gone over to work for these people.”

Just thinking about those books in the cabin made her remember all the times they’d talked about stories. Or read old Jules Verne classics together. They’d talked about codes embedded in verse, and it had sparked her learning how to decode messages.

The CIA had found her on an online forum where she’d cracked a code they’d created just to see if anyone could break it.

She’d been recruited before she even finished college.

All of her skills were things her father had taught her growing up. So much of who he was, the man who had raised her, was embedded in this operation. The canisters. The tests. The numbers Jamie had copied onto the mess-hall map at the beginning of the season.

How could he not have turned? He was obviously helping them.

“Maybe I’m just trying to find my father because he’s the one who masterminded this whole thing and I need to be the one that saves the world from him.” Maria didn’t like saying it out loud, but if she couldn’t be completely honest with Raine, then who could she talk to?

The guys had been great, but she would always be one step removed from them. Just the woman their team protected. The asset.

Raine considered her a friend. A sister, of sorts.

“Dani said she saw your dad on his knees with a gun to his head. You think he turned after that?”

Maria shrugged.

“You want me to tell you to keep the faith? To never give up hope that he’s a good guy, or that in fifteen years he’s never wavered? Never done anything but fight the people who have been trading him around like a commodity?”

“Of course he’s wavered,” Maria said. “Anyone would have.”

“You know what it’s like to be a captive. So maybe just hang on until you can hear the truth from his lips. None of us does the right thing every single time, and he’s been living under extreme stress for years.”

Maria couldn’t catch what Raine wasn’t saying, but she could hear it in her tone. There was more. Raine’s own hang-ups, maybe. “It feels like he’s still as far away as he always was. Even if everyone keeps saying we’re closer than we’ve ever been.”

She’d even tried to convince herself that was true.

“Just don’t go off on your own, okay?”

Maria glanced over.

“Tell someone first. If you’re gonna leave the team for him.”

“I’ll tell you. Okay?”

Raine said, “I’ll hold you to that.”

“If you answer a question.”

“Here it comes. The super spy and her interrogation tactics trying to get me to spill.”

Maria laughed. “If that was going to work, I’d already know everything there was to know about you by now.”

Raine grinned. “Go ahead, then. Do your worst.”

As if that’s what this was. “Why don’t I just ask, and you can decide if you trust me enough to answer?”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Maria said, “I’ll call Tristan. Have him come over and ask.”

Raine gasped. “You wouldn’t dare.”

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